Conventions of an opening sequence

Conventions are codes that you would except to see in a given text. The opening credits are shown at the very beginning of a film and they list the most important members of the production. They are usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. They may or may not be accompanying music. Where opening credits are built into a separate sequence of their own, the correct term is title sequence. Conventionally, throughout the opening sequence of a film an establishing shot of the location, plot and characters are identified through visual, audio and written production techniques. Each of these strategies helps to set up the narrative enigmas, which will be concluded later in the film. The image below is an example of the titles shown at the beginning of the Romantic Comedy “Juno”. The text is superimposed over the top of an existing image.

Throughout the opening sequence of the television programme ‘State Within’ the location was established through a variety of iconic monuments. Road signs, countries flags and props/mise-en-scene for example of a selection of yellow taxis were shown: The yellow taxis represent America. A plot was recognized and it was clear that a bomb was being made, but as an audience we were left unaware of the target. The protagonist of the film is established through the acting in the opening sequence.

During ‘The Italian Job’ the location of the film was established due to iconic monuments and surrounding settings of the city. No characters have been introduced; this could be because at the beginning of the film it relies mainly on the audience’s knowledge of the original film. The camera presents the audience with a variety of shots cautiously giving away aspects of the location without being too obvious.

The last film we used as an example was the recent film ‘Hot Fuzz’. In this opening the sound effects start before the visual, this is affective as its catches the audiences attention and you can guess the theme of the movie if you didn’t already know. The character and character background was established and the mise-en-scene of the characters uniform set the scene and reinforces the location. There are a lot of shots in this opening; these all help establish the sequence and give an indication of the events that will take place. The film uses a variety of mirco elements to present to the viewers the genre of the film and provide them with a range special affects and mise-en-scene aspects to add to the suspicion of the opening sequence. As the opening sequence begins the narrator of the film introduces what appears to be the leading character as a Sergeant. With this vital information it is obvious that the film’s genre specifies in a relation with police work. A second character is soon to be introduced in the opening sequence, with non-diegetic sound between the characters as well as this there is also a narrative diegetic sound response throughout the whole film. The narrator introduces the characters.